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4 Aug 2015

It's been a long time since I've not drove the MR2, what better idea to make a road trip with it ? So here we go for a little spin to enjoy it at its best ! From Metz to Lyon, with a stop near St-Amour to go to the Onoz lac, not that far from Switzerland and back home.

To enjoy the MR2 at its full potential (OEM Specifications) I've decided to fit the Corolla excellent tires instead of the Vredestein Snowtrack 3 (not less cool in winter conditions) as you can see on the pictures. Also because of the winter drivings, the exhaust was broken because of rust. So I could enjoy the 4AGE on "test pipe mode" What a noise ! And what a big difference on the performance side. That's why I couldn't resist to replace it by an OEM like silencer... The noise is now quite good, and the performances as the fuel efficiency made a great improvement.

LYON :

At my friends home, we were not that far from the Street Races I used to witness at as I was a kid. It was a strange feeling to come back there almost 20 years later !

First, a bit of typical french "gastronomie" ! Ho ! Wait...

I can't remember well what kind of car were there as I was a child, but they used to race hard whatever the cops where here ! Lot of BMW's Golf and Peugeot 205. Nowadays many many many Japaneses car are here, of course lot of Civics and a very cool upgraded Nissan GTi-R (Pulsar in Japan). Nobody raced this night at this place, but there were a huge amount of cars ! For some of them even coming from Switzerland, and many cops as well. Surprisingly the atmosphere was cool, some cars where great but we of course, couldn't avoid the "Stance phenomenon" with Civics and Bimmers slammed to the ground with load of typical "Stance" stickers. I think this... replaced the "rice" fashion with extravagant paints and body kits. I think I've enjoyed the meeting ! (Maybe because it reminded me my childhood ?) And just like some Japaneses famous meets, it was free and nobody gave it a stupid name or was the organizer. This is just a weekly spontaneous car meet...

The day after it was time to head out to St Amour to have a cool barbecue, but we had to make a stop in Lyon first.

What a nice city ! (note that this Mini features a 120 db horn coming from japan playing the Godfather them in a typical Zoku fashion. Of course my friend abused of it !)

The eighties shapes are still very cool nowadays don't you think so ? (yes I know this is a temporary parking area).

Another friend jointed us to enjoy the party. "Here come a new challenger !"

Daaaamn ! The car was great on snow... but on dry with the proper tires, the MR2 is so much fun ! The OEM power allows you to take great amount of speed on little roads, the brakes never fads, and on top of that you can do almost whatever you want with the AW11 in a great confidence. The noise of the 4AGE reving is so cool as well... I've never noticed this sticker on Subaru's. Great advice largely applied by its owner !

And it was time to come back home...

On highways the car is LOUD ! And it's not because of the exhaust but because of the OEM intake system that sound like a sport induction intake !

By the way, next time I take the AW11 for a long trip, I'll do it by the little roads ! It was made for it...

Papot's Garage

Welcome to the Papot's world ! I'm a track addicted driver, Motorsports enthusiast and traveler. You can follow here my evolving oldschool Honda Civic and my trips with it around the world on Papots-Garage blog. You can also follow the last Motorsports news or appreciate Motorsports stuff I like mainly focused about Japanese brands and scene on Papots Motorsports blog. #Enjoycarlife